Plant Production in Controlled Environments

Genhua Niu,Joseph Masabni

doi:10.3390/horticulturae4040028

Abstract

Crop production in open fields is increasingly limited by weather extremes and water shortages, in addition to pests and soil-borne diseases. In order to increase crop yield, quality, and productivity, controlled environment agriculture (CEA) can play an important role as an alternative and supplemental production system to conventional open field production. CEA is any agricultural technology that enables growers to manipulate the growing environment for improved yield and quality. CEA production systems include high tunnels, greenhouses, and indoor vertical farming, as well as hydroponics and aquaponics. Currently, ‘low-tech’ CEA techniques such as high tunnels (plastic greenhouses with minimum or no cooling and heating) are primarily utilized in developing countries where labor costs are relatively low, and China has by far the largest area covered by high tunnels or ‘Chinese-style’ solar greenhouses. The most control-intensive ‘high-tech’ CEA approach, namely indoor vertical farming, has gained tremendous attention in the past decade by researchers and entrepreneurs around the world, owing to advancements in lighting technology, including use of light emitting diodes (LEDs), and increasing urbanization with new market opportunities. This special issue covers some of the CEA topics such as LED lighting, substrate, and hydroponics.

Highlights

Crops are produced in soil-based open field systems
Chinchilla et al [2] evaluated growth and physiological responses of two lettuce cultivars exposed to small changes in light quality and intensity within a 24-h period
Urbanization, and climate change have contributed to decreasing global stocks of water and arable land per capita

Summary

Introduction

Environmental extremes, and soil-borne diseases, crop yield and quality varies significantly, and yearround production is impossible in most regions for most crops. Controlled environment agriculture (CEA) is a technology for plant production in environmentally-controlled structures such as high tunnels, greenhouses, growth chambers, or indoor vertical farming (warehouse farming). The aim of CEA is to provide protection from pests and diseases and maintain growing conditions for optimizing plant growth and quality. The environmental conditions inside greenhouses and high tunnels are still dependent on outside conditions such as temperature and solar radiation, while those inside an indoor. Manipulating light quality (or the spectrum) and light intensity to enhance plant growth and quality has become one of the most popular research fields in recent years, and this special issue has three articles on this subject [1,2,3]

Manipulating Light in Indoor Vertical Farming

Other Environmental Factors in CEA

Findings

Conclusions